Perhaps you want to see gorgeous pseudo-teen actresses in shiny, skimpy outfits. Perhaps you're fed up with the mass-produced monotony of popular music. Perhaps you're a twelve-year-old girl looking for a good time.
In any case, Josie and the Pussycats will not disappoint. The undeniably cute film, adapted from the 1970s comic book series and animated TV show of the same name, hit theatres on Wednesday. With a stellar cast, a hilarious script, and a catchy soundtrack, Josie offers a ride through the inner-workings of the music business while giving grade school girls lessons on self-confidence and friendship.
The film's most obvious asset is its cast. Teen-flick superstar Rachael Leigh Cook stars as Josie, offering not only rock-star looks, but clever and well-delivered asides to the camera. Josie is a rural guitar-playin' girl caught up in the music industry maelstrom that the movie so cleverly satirizes. Behind the drum kit is American Pie's Tara Reid, who, unfortunately, was cast in the movie's worst role: The clueless airhead drummer (Melodie) adds sporadic, dimwitted humor for the kids under thirteen who showed up with their parents. Rosario Dawson, not quite as well-known as her would-be bandmates, rounds out the trio as bassist Val, who constantly feels overshadowed by lead singer Josie.
The film opens with a hilarious nod to Almost Famous -- and a dirty look cast in the direction of today's ultra-popular boy bands. After fictitious group DuJour finishes a performance of its hit single "Backdoor Lover" before a crowd of screaming teenage girls, it heads off on its chartered jet to begin a world tour. But soon, the members end up bickering with each other so intensely that Mega Records manager Wyatt Frame (Alan Cumming) decides it's "time to find a new band," parachutes out of the plane, and sends DuJour to a fiery death.
As coincidence (or the script) would have it, Frame finds a struggling all-girl trio known as the Pussycats upon landing safely to earth. He brings the trio to The City, buys them expensive clothes, records their debut album, produces two videos, and sets up a stadium concert.
"Doesn't anyone think it's funny that all this happened in a week," asks Josie, ever the skeptic.
And, of course, her skepticism is justified. Mega Records has a plan: They'll rename the band, put Josie at the front, and use subliminal messages in the band's music to sell their new line of headphones. What's even funnier is that the government is in on the whole conspiracy, which, according to the movie, record companies have been doing for years. Indie film queen Parker Posey, hilariously quirky in her role as Mega Records exec Fiona (no last name here), reveals the whole plan: Kids are gullible, kids buy stuff, kids stimulate the economy. How else can the Razor scooter fad be explained?
Worse, Melodie and Val don't fit into the plan, and Mega Records finds a way to dispose of them using Carson Daly in an unfunny cameo with Reid, whom he's been dating for quite some time. Luckily, everything works out in favor of the band, but the details of the silly ending are not worth giving away.
Josie and the Pussycats puts its protagonists in positions that everyone, not only teenage girls, can relate to: lack of self-confidence, fear of being overshadowed by "cooler" friends, losing faith in a dream. Thanks to a superb cast, the film offers clich?©-but-useful solutions to these problems, ones young people can actually use and older people can shake off as the plot's chaff.
Even better is the movie's soundtrack, offering both unbelievably catchy power pop and soft-core R&B -- Kenneth "Babyface" Edmonds co-wrote the soundtrack with his wife. Kay Hanley, of Boston's own Letters to Cleo, sings lead on much of the material, and the Pussycats themselves sing backup on several tracks. Even after the final credit rolls, chances are that the music will continue playing in your head.
Though hilarious, the film's send-up of the record industry runs into problems. It portrays America as an over-commercialized society fueled by capitalism (isn't it?). Everything in Josie and the Pussycats, from showers to the interiors of business jets, is covered with advertisements. Trouble is, the advertisements in the movie are actual advertisements. In one of the biggest product placement tragedies of modern film, Josie and the Pussycats shamelessly sells Target, McDonald's, and other popular conglomerates to impressionable young minds while feigning to decry the exploitation of young minds. That's downright hypocritical -- but profitable.
This major problem still can't cripple the effectiveness of the script, acting, and soundtrack. Josie and the Pussycats is almost embarrassingly delicious. And if none of the film's positive characters attract you, you get to see and hear the beautiful Rosario Dawson tell Alan Cumming, "You messed with the wrong pussy."
Josie and the Pussycats, starring Rachael Leigh Cook, Tara Reid, Alan Cumming, Parker Posey, directed by Harry Elfont, Deborah Kaplan, 3.5 stars
